In November 2011, Laos is introducing rubella vaccine for the first
time. During a two-phase campaign, Laos plans to immunise more than
three million young people with the combined vaccine for measles and
rubella ("MR" vaccine), offering protection against two preventable
diseases.

When GAVI’s Civil Society Steering Committee gathered in Bangladesh (11-13 November), they were eager to learn more about the country’s immunisation success story. Local CSO BRAC obliged with a field visit to Torgaom village near Dhaka.

Bill Gates' report to the G20 summit calls on global leaders to support exactly the kind of innovative approaches to financing development that have become the hallmark of the GAVI business model. Learn more.

Sudan's introduction of rotavirus vaccine earlier this year signalled the start of a wave of African countries ready to counter the world's leading cause of diarrhoeal deaths with GAVI support. In September, the Alliance approved funding for 12 more African countries to introduce the rotavirus vaccine.

Linked to increasing immunisation coverage with vaccines such as the pentavalent, Madagascar is one of just six countries in the world to reduce its child mortality rates by more than 60% between 1990 and 2009.